Fair and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith--a review

I had never read anything by Smith before, but she was an author I’d been meaning to read for years. I’m glad this challenge came along—it gave me a push to finally read Smith’s work.

Fair and Tender Ladies is an epistolary novel, a form I don't always love. Sometimes it's just too obvious how far the writer has had to reach to fit the information they want to impart into a letter—so it doesn’t feel natural, it feels forced.

But not here. The letters here do feel natural. This is mostly because Smith has created such an accessible, genuine main character in her letter-writer, Ivy Rowe.

Ivy is spunky and smart, one of nine siblings living with her parents on a mountain farm in Sugar Fork, in Appalachian Virginia. The book follows her turbulent life, from her girlhood around the turn of the century until she is an old woman, seven decades later.

Ivy loves to read, write and learn, and wants to make a living as a writer. She also loves the tradition of storytelling that is a part of her Appalachian family’s background. In her drive for education, Ivy almost goes up north to school. But life, and passion, get in the way, and Ivy ends up pregnant and “ruint”. Though Ivy experiences heartbreak and loss, and her life becomes one of hard farm labor and childrearing, she never loses her sense of humor. And her love for the mountain country of her birth ends up sustaining her as much as the love she gives to and receives from her family.

In an interview at the back of this edition of the book (the Ballantine Reader’s Circle edition), Lee Smith tells the story of finding a box of letters at a yard sale where two sisters were selling everything their dead mother had owned. Smith was shocked that they had absolutely no interest in reading or keeping the letters, so she bought them. And she learned so much about the woman’s life and her friends and family that she was inspired to write a novel in letters.

In the interview, Smith also talks about being a Southern writer, and touches on what Maggie asked us to think about during this challenge, the sense of place we find in Southern writing. Smith says she is proud to be both a “Southern writer” and a “woman writer”, but she’s more accurately an “Appalachian writer”. She doesn’t relate to the same things as all Southern writers, for example, she doesn’t always relate to Faulkner’s deep South. But:

“The things that the Appalachian South—and I, as a writer—do share with the Deep South are: a strong sense of place, though my mountains are certainly different from those cotton fields; the importance of religion, family, and the past; and an important tradition of storytelling. Nobody in my family read much, but they were all world-class talkers, men and women alike. They could make a story out of anything—a little trip to the drugstore, or three birds lighting on a telephone wire…just anything. They would talk you to death—and almost did, frankly!”

"Sense of place" is one of my favorite things about this novel. Ivy's letters express her love for the mountain country of Appalachia, its plants, animals, landscape, and even the weather patterns that occur here. Even the modernization that occurs nearby, with a 1930's rural electrification project, enchants Ivy, with its lights that twinkle like stars down on the lower slopes of the mountain she lives on.

Another thing that hooked me was the voice of Ivy Rowe. Through the course of the novel, she goes from precocious child to a plain-speaking, feisty old woman—she is a vivid character and I couldn’t help but be drawn into her life. But she is always funny and observant and her own woman, even in the face of enormous pressure from others.

I also like the way that Ivy never takes to religion, though she is surrounded by it her whole life. But then, near the end of her life, Ivy comes to enjoy the Bible for its stories, poetry, and the sheer beauty of the language. I think Smith is making a point about the importance of story in Ivy’s life, and in the Applachians, and how religion is bound up with the human need for stories.

It is essentially a book about relationships, and one of my favorites is the one between Ivy and her eldest daughter, Joli. Joli is the child of Ivy’s youth, born out of wedlock to a man Ivy didn’t love, but who becomes Ivy’s favorite, who becomes the writer that Ivy wanted to be when she was young.

I love that Joli, when she grows up to be an academic and a writer, becomes fascinated by her Appalachian roots, and researches and writes about them. You get the sense that Joli is enamored of the mountain life partly because she is not of it any more—because she’s not of it, she sees it with anthropological interest. She can research it, but she can’t know it like her mother does. But her mother truly is of the mountains, she lives it. She can’t leave the mountains, no matter how many opportunites she gets to go elsewhere. There is a lovely and true generational contrast between these two women.

Fair and Tender Ladies was a poignant tale, and it really struck a chord with me. I found myself moved by many of the hardships and hard luck of Ivy’s life. The novel left me thinking about sense of place and sense of home, and how important these things are for everyone.

litlove--Smith is one of those regional writers that I had heard about when people talked about Southern literature, but I had never read til now. Glad I did!

john--this is a good one, and her new novel, On Agate Hill, is supposed to be similar. There are probably more epic, or more classic epistolary novels to start with, though--I'll think on it and see if I can recommend something!

I really appreciated this review, Gentlereader. My mother has read everything by Lee Smith and gave me this book several years ago. I have never been drawn to it precisely because of its epistolary style. I am intrigued, though, by the centrality of storytelling that you mention. Sounds like it's worth a try.

kelly--I do think it's worth a try, though I understand not loving the epistolary style. This transcended the style, for me, so I'd be interested to see if it holds up for others...let me know if you read it!

john--just thought of something--I've never read it, but many people love Les Liaisons dangereuses, by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos--it's an epistolary novel that was made into the movies Dangerous Liaisons, and also Valmont. It's often held up as an example of the epistolary style, for what that's worth...

I found your site through BookGirl's Nightstand, and then I see your review on THIS book! It's one of my favorite books, and I'm always so glad to hear of someone else who has read it. Ivy is such an endearing character, despite her mistakes, and you finish the book feeling like you have come to know a new close friend. The setting is such a powerful force as well, and Smith manages to just naturally unfold the events of teh story through all of the letters. Love it.

I've read On Agate Hill as well, and it's a good read, but it lacks the power and charm of Fair and Tender Ladies. So glad you gave it a try!

katie--I'm glad you found me! I felt the same way--Ivy just grabbed me and didn't let go. I was really hesitant when I first saw this was a novel in letters, but it's a testament to Smith's skill that it never bothered me once I started reading.

A lovely review, gentle reader! I must confess I haven't read too many epistolary novels, so I might give this a whirl just because I am fascinated at how different authors will use letters or documents, and nowadays, even blog entries, to write a novel. Infact, there have been times when I thought I should write a book review in the form of a letter or a couple of letters...I did do it one time, but I wasn't as successful as I would have liked.

Another confession...I haven't read too many southern novels, and from how you describe it (a sense of place etc) this does look like a good one to try.

lotus--I am fascinated when writers play with form, too. This is a very nice epistolary novel if you're looking for one. And I also was impressed with David Mitchell's experiments with form in Cloud Atlas. I've heard that Lee Smith's new novel, On Agate Hill, also uses letters and other documents to tell its story, but one of the people who commented above (katie) said it isn't as charming as this one!

I just finished reading this for school. I'm a freshman at a Catholic high school and my entire class had to read it. I liked it enough, and actually read the whole book, but the majority of the lower classes (essential) despised it. I've no idea why, though, and try to understand. I think there were a few too many characters, but other than that, I was pleased!

I just posted a blog on this novel at literatimom.blogspot.com. I used a quote from your analysis of Joli! I'm most interested in the ways that Ivy's sexual transgressions are accepted and incorporated into her family life.

I finished this book about 10 minutes ago, and was left awestruck at the end. Speachless. Staring at the sky. Then out of nowhere I burst into tears, merely because I was going to miss reading about Ivy's life. And that final line is still ringing through my head, "I walked in my body like a qQueen." Being 18 years old and finishing up high school in three days, I began taking note of how we (meaning people my age), don't really thank God enough for our youth, our beauty, and our intelligence. Simple, but beautiful.

Another reason the book captivated me is because I happen to live in the Appalachians. (This place is so beautiful).